federal hiring freeze

The Office of Inspector General has documented the outcomes of the hiring freeze.

A new president kept the federal workforce on its toes this year. Bureauchat hosts Meredith Somers and Nicole Ogrysko discuss the most important stories they covered in 2017.

New Defense guidance says the blanket hiring freeze is now over. But it includes several caveats in line with the goal of reorganizing and reducing the size of the federal workforce.

In the aftermath of the federal hiring freeze, the Veterans Affairs Department says hiring managers are free to fill most positions. But there are still thousands of exceptions requiring approval from senior VA officials.

Federal employees offered mixed reviews of the Office of Management and Budget’s new plan to reorganize and restructure the federal government and workforce. Meanwhile, more than 40 percent of respondents to an exclusive Federal News Radio survey said morale has significantly decreased at their agencies since the beginning of the new administration.

Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) asked that the Government Accountability Office to conduct a full review of President Donald Trump’s temporary hiring freeze. Citing GAO’s past study of previous hiring freezes, both senators said they’re concerned the current freeze isn’t saving government more money and is prompting more agency inefficiencies.

The Office of Personnel Management released a new guidebook on how agencies should begin preparing for workforce reshaping efforts. It also updated key documents on issuing administrative furloughs. Both guides are designed to help agency heads implement possible reductions in force or furloughs so that they comply with the law and do the least damage.

Employees who handle veterans benefits claims and the disability claims backlog, as well as some cybersecurity professionals, are among the Veterans Affairs Department’s additional hiring freeze exemptions. VA Secretary David Shulkin announced more exemptions in a March 13 memo to staff.

The Army says it has established a new, streamlined process to approve exemptions from President Donald Trump’s governmentwide hiring freeze, and has now approved about 20,000 new civilian hires, up from just 5,500 waivers the service had issued as of a week ago.